TDK Bumps up Blu-ray Capacity

January 9, 2006: High Definition DVD may still be months away from initial release, however, in more Blu-ray news from the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, TDK is already adding fuel to the format war fire by showcasing a 100GB recordable Blu-ray disc.

The rapid advancement in capacity is possible because of Blu-ray’s multilayer performance, something that has given the format a leg up in the race with Toshiba’s HD-DVD. TDK uses four 25GB layers to make up the prototype and expects to have the disc to market by 2007.

Sony has also recently been talking up both a four-layer 100GB disc, and eight-layer 200GB disc with a 2007 release target.

A single 100GB Blu-ray disc can store 9 hours of high definition video and records data at 72 megabits per second, double the 36Mbps of current Blu-ray specifications.

The emergence of new storage technology is rather like a trumpeted challenge at times. Technologies such as Blu-ray and HD-DVD haven’t even hit shelves, yet the imaginations of content producers, and exploding data storage needs in general are already filling them.

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